I’ve recently formulated a new goal for my stay here. I’m going to find out exactly where specific movies were shot in Japan then go there and take a photo at the same location used in the movie. In this way I can sort of let movies be my tour guide to the country, and I began this quest with the Sapporo Snow Festival.

Back at Purdue I took Japanese Cinema. Really, I found all of the **** Cinema classes to be a waste of time, but I due to their counting towards my graduation I figured why not take them.

In Japanese cinema, once we got past all of the older movies that no one remembers, we watched Love Letter. It was made 13 years ago, but when I’ve mentioned it in passing to Japanese people, many still remember it. It’s almost like the Sleepless in Seattle of Japan.

Anyway, I kind of forgot about the movie’s existence for quite some time, that is until I remembered that we were going to be staying in Otaru for the Sapporo Snow Festival Otaru being a nice little city about 40 minutes west of Sapporo. That and I was able to find a room there, while Sapporo was completely booked.

Otaru made me remember Love Letter because the movie both takes place and was largely shot there. While one of the houses the movie was filmed at has since burnt down, thanks to IMDB trivia I knew that some scenes were filmed at the Former Nippon Yusen Co. Otaru Branch and, as I just remembered, the opening scene was filmed at Mt. Tengu—which just so happened to be right where our hostel was.

The opening of Love Letter at Tenguyama–where we stayed

While in Otaru I completely forgot that the opening mountain was where are hostel was, but I did remember to stop by the Former Nippon Yusen Co. Otaru Branch. It’s now a museum, it having a decent amount of historical significance and all, so we took a tour of the place. It apparently was the location of where the it was decided where the borders would be redrawn following the Russo-Japanese war and was also designed by the student of the guy who taught the guy who built the Marunouchi station in Tokyo. Try that hat on for size.

One of the main character’s jobs is as a librarian, so they used the building for both external and internal scenes of her workplace.

Scene in Love Letter in front of the Former Nihon Yusen Co. Otaru branch

The current front of the building, 13 years later. Not much has changed. Photo by Beth.

I’m about 90% sure that they transformed the building into a library for the movie, as, at least as of present, it was a far cry from being a library.

Love Letter’s take on the interior.

The current interior. Apparently they felt the need to keep the same curtains drawn for 13 years. Photo by Beth.

And finally, because there needs to be at least one photo of people.

The movie’s take on sitting at desks.

Our take on sitting at desks.

Now that one movie is out of the way, I’m opening the table for suggestions on other movie locations to travel to and photograph. My main requirement is that I must be able to relatively easily find out specifically where a movie was shot. And yes, I’m including anime in this as long as it uses a real-life specific location.

Where should I go to next?

Popularity: 60% [?]

Like it? Hate it? Either way, subscribe to the Lucky Isle RSS feed!